Los Haro and Napa

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The Los Haro Pioneers in Napa - 1952
Shown here at the Charles Krug Winery (St. Helena, Napa, California). They were all on bracero contracts and arrived in October 1952 to work for the Mondavi Family during the wine grape harvest. Today there are more than 1,000 descendants, friends and neighbors of these men living and working in the Napa Valley. They are, from left to right: Enrique Segura,José Manuel Saldívar, Feliciano De Haro and Rafael Saldívar. Photo courtesy of América Saldívar.

This cover of a 1973 Sunset book features Enrique Segura on the right.
Carrying the bin of grapes is Oscar De haro, today Vice President ofNapa Valley College.

Members of the De Haro and Saldívar families make up the cellar crew atMarkham Winery in St. Helena, California.Kneeling, from left to right: Pascual De Haro and Leonardo De Haro;Standing, from left to right:

Pascual De Haro arrived in St. Helena in the mid 1950s and worked for
the Mondavi family at Charles Krug Winery until his retirement. He holds
a copy of the book about the history of Los Haro and its connection to Napa:Santos, Duraznos y Vino (Saints, Peaches and Wine by Sandra Nichols).

Saints, Peaches and Wine: Mexican migrants and the transformation of
Los Haro, Zacatecas and Napa, California

by Sandra Nichols (2002)

From the Introduction: A web of connection

In California's Napa Valley they are Mexican farmworkers, wage laborers and professionals, collectively lumped together as "Latino immigrants." In the Jerez Valley, back in their home state of Zacatecas, they are farmers, ranchers, shopkeepers and successful emigrants. In Napa they plant and care for the vineyards, pick the grapes and work for some of the world's most celebrated wineries; they also tend the gardens and maintain the Valley's carefully manicured landscapes; they clean the hotel rooms, raise their families and strive to improve conditions for themselves and for fellow Mexican migrants. Still, they manage to stay in close touch with their small village, their rancho of Los Haro, Zacatecas where they grow peaches, own their own homes, support their aging parents, and return as often as possible for vacations, family reunions and to render service to San Rafael, their patron saint. This evolving and ever-changing relationship between Los Haro and Napa is but one of hundreds, indeed thousands, of similar ties between migrant-sending communities in Mexico and migrant-receiving places in the United States. Collectively these border-spanning communities have woven a vast, transnational web of connection that binds villages and towns throughout Mexico with towns, cities and regions across the United States. With some 19 million Mexicans now living in the United States, this great web is one of the most salient features of the contemporary U.S.-Mexico relationship, and one whose impact is felt everyday in thousands of communities on both sides of the border. Understanding this web, in its nuance, complexity and diversity of features, offers a new way to think about the relations between our peoples, our cultures and our two countries.

SANDRA NICHOLS is a cultural geographer who studies and writes about Mexican migration and transnational communities.